I have a Samsung 40" TV that I purchased in the 2008 Boxing Day sales.

It's been a good unit and I really like it. Normally you turn the power on, the little red standby light comes on, and you push the power button on the TV or the remote. The light then blinks, and 3-4 secs later the picture appears.

Over the last couple of days, I push the power button on the TV or the remote, and the TV takes 4-5 MINUTES to start. Once it has started it works fine, but the startup time annoys and concerns me.

I have read that this seems to be a known issue in the US, with bad capacitors as the cause, and that Samsung has been fixing them.

Before I contact Samsung to discuss, I would appreciate views on:

what may be causing this?

whether it's unreasonable to expect retailer/Samsung to do anything about a six year old telly at this point?

how much an inspection fix might cost and, if I had to pay, whether it might just be worth getting a new TV?

anything else I should consider?

I'm not burning to replace it. It has a good picture, loads of inputs (4xHDMI, 2x Component, 2x AV and 1x VGA), and sits well in the room. SO, providing it isn't stupidly uneconomic to fix and old TV rather than get a new one, that would be my preference.

The issue is likely to be capacitors in the power supply, it is not an uncommon problem in any electronic device. Mine is doing the same thing but I cant be bothered fixing it, I might do in a few weeks time when I have a few days off on leave.

Capacitors deteriorate with age and heat.

I would not expect it to cost too much to repair, probably around $120 mark ( I don't know what TV repairers charge these days, probably $100 or so an hour )

Jokes aside, I had a similar problem (Samsung 42"), doesn't take that long to turn on (30 secs or so) and reach the same conclusions with the power adaptor. A few months ago I had a power cut that seems to fix it somehow. My guess in my case is not the adaptor that is faulty, it may have reset something.

It probly wouldnt hurt try to physically unplug it from the wall for 10 mins or so.

whether it's unreasonable to expect retailer/Samsung to do anything about a six year old telly at this point? - Probably. I think that would be really stretching the limits of the CGA.

how much an inspection fix might cost and, if I had to pay, whether it might just be worth getting a new TV? - Normally $50 - $100 up front and that gets taken off the bill if you go ahead with the repair.

anything else I should consider?

Maybe check the menu for standby settings. I have seen in a couple of our set top boxes and TV they have a setting to disable full power down. It may be called fast start or something like that. It just keeps the TV in a lower power state and it can start quicker at the cost of using a bit more power while off. Kind of like sleep mode on a computer.

I don't think it's a settings thing, and it is powered off at the wall when not in use.

I have to do a work trip for a week or so. Then I will contact a TV repair shop to discuss and get an estimate.

Unless the cost is silly, I will repair. Hoping to hold off on a new telly until the toy budget (which was totally drained to buy a NAS) is replenished, and there is more clarity around the future of 4K and related issues (DRM etc).

I have a Samsung with the same issue and like you found the same research that it was common for the capacitors in the power supply for some LCDs to degenerate increasing the amount of time it takes to start up until they eventually fail.

I found the following post rather helpful and have decided to give fixing it myself a whirl:

I bought some replacement (and better suited) capacitors off element14 for around $10 delivered. I have not gotten around to actually soldering in the new capacitors yet as the screen is surplus to requirements and is therefore a low priority on my list of things to repair but I'll get to it eventually and hopefully it works.

I'm now fairly certain that it's the capacitors, so I will sort it when I get back from a short work trip I have to do.

Although there are some great deals out there at the moment, I don't really want to spend money on a new set just yet. So, if it's fixable in the circa $100-200 range I will probably get it done. Otherwise, given the pricing of new sets, it starts to look silly spending that much to repair old kit, and I will probably replace.

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